In many retail establishments, lottery tickets are sold from dispensing machines. Some such machines are stand alone machines which are intended to interact solely with the public so that they include mechanisms for receiving payment and for controlling the dispensing of selected tickets. Such machines generally have a series of containers which receive a supply of the tickets to be dispensed together with a roller dispensing mechanism which feeds the tickets from the supply to a dispensing location. In such machines it is necessary to provide a bursting mechanism which separates each ticket from the next along a line of weakness. Such tickets are generally supplied in fan-folded stacked form.
Other such machines are of a similar nature with the exception that the tearing action is carried out by the customer where the tear line is presented at a nip point of the machine so that the customer can tear away one or more tickets which have been presented forwardly of the nip line.
Other dispensing mechanisms are provided for interaction between the customer, the clerk in the retail establishment and the machine in that the machine is basically a storage and dispensing assistant for the clerk allowing the clerk to pull out and tear off a required number of tickets for the customer, at the customers request. Some such machines include electronic communication so that the customer and clerk can both provide inputs into the machine confirming the discharge of selected tickets. Other machines are simply a receptacle for the supplies of different tickets with the clerk pulling out the required number of tickets as selected by the customer.
The intention with such machines is generally to provide a number of compartments which store tickets in sufficient numbers to provide a selection for the customers. The machines are therefore not associated with particular tickets or particular games but must be designed so that they can accommodate different sizes and types of tickets for dispensing. This requirement to co-ordinate the machine and ticket size places limitations on ticket designs in that the tickets must be sized and shaped so that they can be accommodated within the existing dispensing machines.
Yet further the fact that the machines are designed to receive different tickets means that the machines can not carry extensive advertising or graphics materials promoting the games since this must be changed if the tickets are changed. In many cases, therefore, the machine displays one or more of the tickets so that the customer can see the tickets to be selected so that the ticket itself constitutes the advertising material presented on the machine.
These two limitations thus restrict the entry into the market place of new games since new games may be dimensioned differently from existing games and since new games require additional promotion for the customers to become aware of them. However the presentation of new and more exciting games is desirable for the promotion of the industry in general.